Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Nissan, Green Daily
There was a lot of justified excitement on these pages when Nissan announced the $32,780 price for the Leaf ($25,280 after federal tax credits). Considering the impact this price will have on the plug-in vehicle industry as a whole, we wanted to go around the virtual horn and see what other plug-in vehicle automakers and advocates think about this price. Here are the responses, and we’ll add more as people get back to us.
First, Kim Adelman, of Plug-In Conversions Corporation, who told AutoblogGreen that:
Nissan has done a great thing. This will make it much easier for more people to experience all electric driving. Same feeling and excitement as when I first ordered my Toyota Rav4-EV in 2001. It’s only a decade later! I hope this puts productive pressure on the other car companies.
Plug In America members are also wildly excited about the price, with Paul Scott writing that, Nissan’s announcement:
No doubt sent shivers down the spines of Toyota and Honda, not to mention GM execs. They now have to compete at a much lower price point if they want to play the game in which Nissan is writing the rules.
Mitsubishi North America’s product communications manager, Maurice “Moe” Durand, told AutoblogGreen that the i-MiEV is not launching until the end of 2011 in the U.S. and the price has not yet been set, but that Mitsubishi “is very much aware of Nissan’s pricing.” Over on the Mini E team, Richard Steinberg, BMW’s manager of electric vehicle operations and strategy, told us that:
To be honest, the MSRP was quite reasonable. I thought that was appropriate for the technology. What is really going to draw the headlines, of course, was the $369 per month lease with two grand down. That is really an attractive payment. What I don’t really understand is what happens when the federal tax credit runs down.
The Mini E, which customers are leasing now, is not eligible for the $7,500 federal tax credit; the Leaf is. For the record, those credits phase out for each manufacturer:
once cumulative sales of qualified vehicles reach 200,000 vehicles. The phase-out period begins two calendar quarters after the first date in which a manufacturer’s sales reach the cumulative sales maximum after December 31, 2009. The credit is reduced to 50 percent of the total value for the first two calendar quarters of the phase-out period and then to 25 percent for the third and forth calendar quarters before being phased out entirely thereafter.
Read the details here.
Gallery: New York 2010: Nissan Leaf
Plug-in vehicle industry responds to Nissan Leaf’s low price originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Thu, 01 Apr 2010 19:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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